Kautilya, the famous thinker on leadership and statesmanship in ancient India, emphasizes that the foundation of an organization is its financial strength, its economy. No good organization or country can run effectively without having its economy in good condition. According to Kautilya, the objective of any king is to create, expand, protect, and enjoy wealth. A leader should know that spending wealth in the proper manner is as important as earning it.
In his famous book Arthashastra (Economics), he tells the
king, ‘Be ever active in management of the economy, because the root of wealth is
economic activity; inactivity brings material distress. Without any active
policy, both current prosperity and future gains are destroyed.’
According to Kautilya, a good leader should know how to
handle the masses and people with different temperaments, attitudes, and
thinking capacity. Understanding people is the most important quality of a
leader. Kautilya felt that a king or a leader should know the secrets of
administration, which according to him include
- Sama, counselling
- Dana, offering gifts
- Danda, punishment
- Bheda, separation